The Ladies' Vase eBook

Letter-writing is a subject of so varied and extensive
a nature, that it can scarcely be reduced to rules
or taught by precept; but some instructions respecting
it may afford assistance in avoiding error, and obtaining
a degree of excellence in this most important exercise.

When you write a letter to any person, express the
same sentiments and use the same language as you would
do if you were conversing with him. “Write
eloquently,” says Mr. Gray, “that is, from
your heart, in such expressions as that will furnish.”

Before you begin a letter, especially when it is on
any occasion of importance, weigh well in your own
mind the design and purport of it; and consider very
attentively what sentiments are most proper for you
to express, and your correspondent to read.

To assist invention and promote order, it may, as
some writers on epistolary composition recommend,
occasionally be of use to make, in the mind, a division
of a letter into three parts, the beginning, middle,
and end; or, in other words, the exordium or introduction,
the narration or proposition, and the conclusion.
The exordium, or introduction, should be employed,
not indeed with the formality of rhetoric, but with
the ease of genuine politeness and benevolence, in
conciliating favor and attention; the narration or
proposition, in stating the business with clearness
and precision; the conclusion, in confirming what has
been premised, in making apologies where any are necessary,
and in cordial expressions of respect, esteem, or
affection.

Scrupulously adhere to the rules of grammar.
Select and apply all your words with a strict regard
to their proper signification, and whenever you have
any doubts respecting the correctness or propriety
of them, consult a dictionary or some good living
authority. Avoid, with particular care, all errors
in orthography, in punctuation, and in the arrangement
of words and phrases.

Dashes, underlinings, and interlineations, are much
used by unskillful and careless writers, merely as
substitutes for proper punctuation, and a correct,
regular mode of expression. The frequent recurrence
of them greatly defaces a letter, and is equally inconsistent
with neatness of appearance and regularity of composition.
All occasion for interlineations may usually be superseded
by a little previous thought and attention. Dashes
are proper only when the sense evidently requires
a greater pause than the common stops designate.
And in a well-constructed sentence, to underline a
word is wholly useless, except on some very particular
occasion we wish to attract peculiar attention to
it, or to give it an uncommon degree of importance
or emphasis.

Postscripts have a very awkward appearance, and they
generally indicate thoughtlessness and inattention.
To make use of them in order to convey assurances
of respect to the person to whom you write, or to those
who are intimately connected with him, is particularly
improper; it seems to imply that the sentiments you
express are so slightly impressed upon your mind,
that you had almost forgotten them or thought them
scarcely worth mentioning.